Archeologists in central Denmark have made a massive discovery, finding a burial ground dating to the Viking era with 50 “exceptionally well-preserved” skeletons. The finding now has historians fighting to find clues about the time period.
The discovery was made in the village of Aasum, located 3 miles northeast of Denmark’s third-largest city, Odense. The burial ground was stumbled upon last year when surveys were being done for power line renovation work, the Museum Odense shared in a statement.
Now, after six months of unearthing and studying the burial ground, archaeologists are celebrating what they say are extremely “well-preserved” skeletal remains.
“This is such an exciting find because we found these skeletons that are so very, very well preserved,” archeologist Michael Borre Lundø shared with the Associated Press. “Normally, we would be lucky to find a few teeth in the graves, but here we have entire skeletons.”
The Museum shared in its release that the findings could help be the key to understanding what Vikings did in their daily lives.
The skeletons were preserved thanks to favorable soil chemistry that was chalky with high water levels, the museumshared. Experts are now preparing to conduct DNA analyses of the remains and even look at reconstructing detailed life histories of those buried at the site.
“This discovery offers extraordinary opportunities to perform a wide range of scientific analyses, which can reveal more about the general health, diet, and origins of those buried,” Borre Lundø shared in a statement from the museum. “The analyses might even reveal whether the buried Vikings were related, which would be particularly significant, as this has never been examined in similar graves.”
The Viking Age is considered to have run from 793 to 1066 A.D. During that time, Norsemen, known as Vikings, conducted massive raids and colonization efforts throughout Europe, reaching as far as North America.
The findings will help open a new box of understanding of what life was like for the Vikings.
“This opens a whole new toolbox for scientific discovery,” Borre Lundø told the AP. “Hopefully, we can make a DNA analysis on all the skeletons and see if they are related to each other and even where they come from.”
But while you may be thinking of a skeleton buried in his horned helmet with an ax, researchers shared that the Vikings unearthed in Aasum were most likely not warriors. The remains were identified as men, women, and children. Besides the skeletal remains, there were also a few cremated bodies at the burial site.
Other things uncovered by archeologists in some of the graves included necklace beads, knives, glass, and brooches. Borre Lundø says this showed “different levels of burials” in Viking culture.
Dating the design on the brooch, Borre Lundø estimates the dead were buried between 850 and 900 A.D. Several other items uncovered came from far beyond Denmark, showing the extensive trade routes the Vikings had.
“There’s a lot of trade and commerce going on,” Borre Lundø told the AP. “We also found a brooch that comes from the island of Gotland, on the eastern side of Sweden, but also whetstones for honing your knife … all sorts of things point to Norway and Sweden.”
Researchers are continuing to examine their findings.